Montgomery Township, New Jersey

The Kenvue campus is out of the housing plan. What happens there is still being decided.

Montgomery removed the former Kenvue campus at 199 Grandview Road from its Fourth Round housing plan in an amended plan adopted on March 9, 2026. That plan has not yet been certified by the court. On September 17, 2026 the Township Committee sent Block 14001, Lot 2 — the lot with the campus buildings — to the Planning Board for a redevelopment study, at the developer's request. Block 13001, Lot 15 is not part of the study.

Save Montgomery is a grassroots group of Montgomery Township residents. This site follows the public record: the sections below cite the township document or meeting recording each one rests on.

See the full timeline About the Kenvue site
382.771 acres
The former Kenvue campus at 199 Grandview Road: Block 14001, Lot 2 and Block 13001, Lot 15.
March 9, 2026
Amended housing plan adopted — without the Kenvue site in it.
Not yet certified
No compliance hearing has been held; the case is still open.

Keep up with what the boards are doing.

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Where things stand

Four open questions about 199 Grandview Road

Updated October 3, 2026. Each card says what has been decided, what has not, and where to check.

  • Not yet certified Last moved

    The housing plan

    The Kenvue site is out. The Planning Board adopted the 2026 Amended Fourth Round Housing Element and Fair Share Plan on March 9, 2026, and the Township Committee endorsed it on March 19. The 260-unit obligation is met by extending affordability controls on 210 existing homes — 275 credits in all — instead of by new construction.

    It is not finished. The township has a settlement with Fair Share Housing Center, but the township attorney said on the record on September 17, 2026 that the settlement is not final until a court compliance hearing approves it, that the judge will not hold that hearing until the township has met with E. Kahn Development, and that without it Montgomery could lose its immunity from builder’s-remedy lawsuits. No certification has issued.

    One piece of the deal is still to come. On September 14, 2026 the township administrator described 189 market-rate apartments at a “Belle Mead Station” site near Pike Run as “the offset to the extension” of affordability controls on 96 Pike Run apartments — the extension that replaced the Kenvue units. Their zoning has not yet been drafted.

    How the site came out of the plan Source: Township Committee video, Sept 17, 2026 (opens in a new tab)
  • Study under way Last moved

    The redevelopment study

    On September 17, 2026 the Township Committee adopted Resolution #26-9-260, directing the Planning Board to investigate whether Block 14001, Lot 2 at 199 Grandview Road meets the statutory criteria for designation as a non-condemnation redevelopment area, and Resolution #26-9-261, authorising an escrow agreement under which E. Kahn Development funds the study. Both passed 4-0, with Committeeman Mike Martin absent.

    Two limits matter. The investigation covers only Block 14001, Lot 2 — not the whole campus. And "non-condemnation" means a designation would carry no eminent-domain power. Asked from the floor whose idea the study was, the answer from the dais was that it was the developer’s request.

    The Planning Board took it up on September 28, 2026. Its attorney said the report, once finished, will be made public and given a noticed hearing before the Board recommends anything. No dates were set. The only Montgomery precedent, 23 Orchard Road, went from referral to designation in six months, and nobody spoke at its hearing. The Board next meets October 12 and November 9.

    What a redevelopment study means Source: Planning Board video, Sept 28, 2026 (opens in a new tab)
  • In litigation Last moved

    The data-center ordinance

    Ordinance No. 26-1779, adopted 4-0 on June 18, 2026 — the fifth seat was vacant that night, Deputy Mayor Vince Barragan’s resignation having taken effect that day — prohibits data centers and detention centers throughout Montgomery Township. E. Kahn Development filed a five-count complaint in Somerset County Superior Court on July 31, 2026 (SOM-L-001072-26), seeking a declaration that the ordinance is invalid and an injunction against its enforcement. As of September 17 the township had not been served.

    The widely reported "$300 million" figure is false: the complaint names no dollar amount at all. The township attorney said so on August 20 and again on September 17, and E. Kahn itself called the report false. That figure belongs to Hexa Builders’ suit against Monroe Township in Gloucester County. The complaint also alleges the Planning Board never reviewed Master Plan consistency; the Board’s June 8 minutes state that it found the ordinance consistent.

    The ordinance and the lawsuit Source: The complaint, SOM-L-001072-26 (opens in a new tab)
  • Application filed Last moved

    The campus itself

    The holding is 382.771 acres across Block 14001 Lot 2 and Block 13001 Lot 15, and its Limited Manufacturing core is about 257 acres. The deed, recorded December 30, 2025, conveys it for $23.5 million to four LLCs as tenants in common; E. Kahn Development is not on it, and the township treats it as the owners’ representative. Lot 2 alone is assessed at about $41.3 million. E. Kahn’s complaint dates its site plan application for an industrial project to April 15, 2026 and says it was declared administratively complete on June 9, 2026. A light-manufacturing build-out is what the current zoning allows by right; at the September 8, 2025 Planning Board the developer’s team put a full by-right build-out at roughly 1.6 million square feet, and a smaller concept of about 1.2 million square feet, shown at the developer’s community meetings, was reported in February 2026.

    The township has a fiscal argument here worth stating plainly. Mayor Neena Singh said on the record on September 17, 2026 that Kenvue will cease operations at the site by the end of 2026, that the township expects a roughly $1.4 million annual tax-revenue gap as a result, and that the owner has signalled it will seek a tax appeal. That appeal is already filed: the four LLCs’ appeal of the 2026 Lot 2 assessment has been pending in the Tax Court since February 27, 2026 (docket 2026001145).

    The site, lot by lot Source: Township Committee video, Sept 17, 2026 (opens in a new tab)

What's next

Dates to know

Public meetings and deadlines where residents can act. Meeting dates can move, so each one links to where to confirm it.

  1. Planning Board

    The Board’s only October meeting. “E. Kahn Development Corp. — 199 Grandview Road” is on its future-agenda list; the redevelopment study’s hearing must be separately noticed.

    Confirm on the township calendar(opens in a new tab)

  2. Voter registration deadline

    Last day to register to vote, or update your address, for the November 3 election.

    How to vote

  3. Early in-person voting

    Montgomery’s Municipal Building, 100 Community Drive, is one of six Somerset County sites. Mon–Sat 10 a.m.–8 p.m., Sun 10 a.m.–6 p.m.

    Sites and hours

  4. General election

    Two Township Committee seats: a full three-year term and the two years left on Vince Barragan’s term. Polls open 6 a.m.–8 p.m.

    The candidates

  5. Planning Board

    The Board’s next regular meeting after October 12.

    Confirm on the township calendar(opens in a new tab)

  6. Kenvue ceases operations

    The township attorney told the Committee Kenvue will leave 199 Grandview Road by year end; the mayor put the resulting tax gap at about $1.4 million a year.

    On the timeline

The record

How Montgomery got here

The turning points, most recent first. Every entry on the full timeline carries at least one citation.

  1. Kenvue site Active

    The Planning Board takes up the Kenvue study — no planner named, no dates set

    At its first meeting after the Committee's referral, the Planning Board heard from its attorney that the Grandview Road study report, once finished, will be made public and given a noticed hearing before the Board recommends anything. No planner was named for the study and no dates were set. The professional appointment on the same agenda was for 23 Orchard Road, not the Kenvue site.

    Planning Board meeting video, September 28, 2026(opens in a new tab)

  2. Housing plan Pending

    The housing case is not over: no compliance hearing, no certification

    On the same night, the township attorney said Montgomery has reached a settlement with Fair Share Housing Center but that it is not final until a court approves it at a compliance hearing — one the judge would not hold until the township sat down with E. Kahn Development, a meeting that has now taken place. Without a hearing, the attorney said, the township could lose its immunity from builder's-remedy lawsuits.

    Township Committee meeting video, September 17, 2026 — legal updates(opens in a new tab)

  3. Kenvue site Active

    Committee orders a redevelopment study of the Kenvue site

    The Township Committee adopted Resolutions #26-9-260 and #26-9-261 by 4-0, with Committeeman Mike Martin absent, directing the Planning Board to investigate whether Block 14001, Lot 2 at 199 Grandview Road meets the criteria for designation as a non-condemnation redevelopment area, and funding that study through an escrow agreement with E. Kahn Development Corp.

    Township Committee meeting video, September 17, 2026(opens in a new tab)

  4. Litigation In court

    E. Kahn sues to void the data-center ordinance

    E. Kahn Development Corp. filed a five-count complaint in lieu of prerogative writs in Somerset County Superior Court (SOM-L-001072-26), asking the court to declare Ordinance 26-1779 invalid and to enjoin its enforcement. The complaint names no dollar amount. The widely repeated report that it demanded $300 million was wrong, and the township said so twice on the record.

    E. Kahn Development Corp. v. Township of Montgomery, complaint, July 31, 2026 (SOM-L-001072-26), as published by New Jersey Monitor(opens in a new tab)

  5. Data centers Resolved

    Data centers and detention centers banned townwide

    The Township Committee adopted Ordinance #26-1779, prohibiting data centers and detention centers throughout Montgomery Township, on a 4-0 roll call after a public hearing at which E. Kahn's lawyer asked it to reject or carry the ordinance and six speakers — four of them Montgomery residents — spoke in support.

    Township Committee minutes, June 18, 2026(opens in a new tab)

  6. Housing plan Resolved

    Planning Board adopts the Amended Fourth Round plan, 8-0

    After a hearing of about twenty minutes at which no member of the public spoke, the Planning Board adopted the 2026 Amended Fourth Round Housing Element and Fair Share Plan on an 8-0 roll call — 275 credits from 210 preserved units plus 65 bonus credits, against an obligation of 260. The Kenvue site carries no credits in it.

    Planning Board minutes, March 9, 2026(opens in a new tab)

Read the full timeline

Latest

Explainers and analysis

Written from the minutes, the ordinances and the meeting recordings, with the sources listed at the foot of every piece.

  • Housing plan

    Round Four, Explained: What Montgomery Actually Owes and How It Is Being Met

    A 260-unit obligation for 2025–2035, met not by building but by extending the affordability controls on 208 existing affordable homes — 210 units in the plan's table once two carried-over third-round credits are counted. What the numbers are, what a Master Plan can and cannot do, and why builder's-remedy immunity is the thing to watch.

    Read the piece

  • Data centers

    The Data Center Ordinance and the Lawsuit Against It

    Ordinance 26-1779 bans data centers and detention centers throughout Montgomery Township. E. Kahn Development sued on July 31, 2026 to void it. What the ordinance says, what the five-count complaint actually argues, what the Planning Board minutes record — and why the widely reported $300 million figure is false.

    Read the piece

  • Kenvue site

    The Environmental Record on the Kenvue Site: What Exists, and What Doesn't

    No independent environmental impact study of the 199 Grandview Road campus has been published. Here is what the public record does contain — the site's setting, the traffic figures the developer put on the table, and the water and energy arguments made during the data-center hearing.

    Read the piece

  • Process

    What an 'Area in Need of Redevelopment' Study Actually Means

    On September 17, 2026 the Township Committee sent the main Kenvue parcel — Lot 2 in Block 14001, not the whole campus — to the Planning Board for a non-condemnation redevelopment investigation, 4-0 with one member absent. What New Jersey's redevelopment law requires, what the designation would and would not allow, and the arguments on both sides.

    Read the piece

  • Housing plan

    What Changed: How the Kenvue Site Came Out of Montgomery's Housing Plan

    From the June 2025 hearings that put 417 units on the former Kenvue campus, through the November 2025 mediation, to the amended plan the Planning Board adopted on March 9, 2026 — what actually happened, who moved, and why the case is still not closed.

    Read the piece

  • Housing plan

    Where Things Stand: Montgomery Township, September 2026

    A status report on the four open questions about the former Kenvue campus — the housing plan, the redevelopment study, the data-center ban and the lawsuits — setting out what has actually been decided and what has not.

    Read the piece

All articles

In the room

Recent public meetings

Recordings, agendas and written summaries of the meetings where these decisions were actually made.

  • Planning Board1h 23m

    Planning Board — September 28, 2026

    The Planning Board's first look at the Committee's referral of the Kenvue site. The Board's attorney laid out the steps: a study report, made public, then a noticed hearing, then a recommendation. No planner was named and no dates were set. Three residents spoke. The consultant hired that night, eConsult Solutions, was for 23 Orchard Road's redevelopment plan, not Grandview.

    Covers: Kenvue site, Process

    Summary and highlights Township recording (opens in a new tab)
  • Township Committee2h 02m

    Township Committee — September 17, 2026

    The Township Committee directed the Planning Board to study whether Block 14001, Lot 2 at 199 Grandview Road meets the statutory criteria for a non-condemnation redevelopment area, and authorised an escrow agreement under which E. Kahn Development pays for the study. Both passed 4-0 with Committeeman Martin absent, over roughly 40 minutes of public comment that ran heavily against them. The township attorney also said on the record that the widely reported "$300 million" damages figure in the data-center lawsuit is false.

    Covers: Kenvue site, Housing plan, Litigation

    Summary and highlights Township recording (opens in a new tab)
  • Planning Board57m

    Planning Board — September 14, 2026

    A short meeting with one item that matters to the housing story: the township administrator's update on the "Transit Commercial" site, where 189 market-rate apartments called Belle Mead Station are planned as what she called "the offset to the extension" of affordability controls on 96 Pike Run apartments. The Board then went into closed session on hiring a special planning consultant and on E. Kahn Development's lawsuit against the Board.

    Covers: Housing plan, Kenvue site, Litigation

    Summary and highlights Township recording (opens in a new tab)
All meetings

Primary sources

The documents themselves

Township plans, ordinances, agendas and minutes. Read them rather than taking anyone's word for what is in them — including ours.

Every document here is the publisher's own file, and the publisher is named on each card.

What is coming up

The next public meetings

Pulled from the township calendar. Boards move, add and skip meetings, so check the township's own calendar before you go.

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About

Save Montgomery

Save Montgomery is a grassroots group of Montgomery Township residents. We are not opposed to affordable housing. We opposed putting 417 homes on the former Kenvue campus at 199 Grandview Road on ten days' public notice, and we oppose high-density development there now.

Since September 2026 we have also opposed designating the site an area in need of redevelopment. Our attorney, Bruce Afran, has argued that a designation will fail in the courts if it cherry-picks isolated instances of repair or maintenance and fails to identify true blight, and that the buildings are largely in a pristine state, well suited to their intended uses or capable of being adaptively reused.

This site exists because the record is scattered across agendas, minutes, ordinances and hours of meeting video. We read it and publish it with citations, including the parts that cut against us — the township's fiscal case for keeping its options open is set out here alongside everything else.

What we publish

A dated, sourced timeline; written summaries of the meetings where decisions were actually taken; and the township's own documents, linked in full.

How to reach us

Email info@savemontgomery.org. Corrections are welcome and will be made on the record.

More about the group

Get involved

Three things that actually help

The decisions ahead are made in public, on the record, at evening meetings that anyone may attend and speak at. Showing up, and being accurate when you do, is most of the work.

Stay informed

Email updates when something moves: a vote taken, a filing made, a hearing noticed. No more than the news warrants, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Attend and speak up

The Planning Board will take up the preliminary investigation of the Kenvue site at a public meeting. The date will be noticed in advance — watch the calendar and the public notices.

When the boards meet

Township Committee
Generally the 1st and 3rd Thursday, 7 p.m.
Planning Board
Generally the 2nd and 4th Monday, 7 p.m.
Zoning Board of Adjustment
Generally the 4th Tuesday, 7 p.m.

Township Committee meetings are in the Chambers Room, Municipal Center, 100 Community Drive, Skillman; the Planning and Zoning Boards also meet at the Municipal Center. All three boards move or skip meetings, so check the calendar before you go. The Township Committee confirmed on September 17, 2026 that its next meeting is Thursday, October 1; the Planning Board’s next scheduled date under its usual cadence is Monday, September 28.

How public comment works

  • Most agendas carry a public-comment period for items that are not on the agenda, and a separate comment period on each ordinance or hearing item. Ask the clerk which one fits what you want to say.
  • Give your name and address when you reach the microphone. You are speaking on the record, and the recording is published afterwards.
  • Boards commonly set a time limit. Listen for the chair’s announcement when the comment period opens, and plan for it.

What makes a comment land

  • Name the item. "Resolution #26-9-260" carries further than "the Kenvue thing".
  • Speak to the test the board actually has to apply. A redevelopment investigation turns on statutory criteria; a recommendation on an ordinance turns on consistency with the Master Plan.
  • Bring one fact and say where it came from — a date, a figure from the minutes, a page of the plan.
  • Say what you want them to do: vote no, carry the item, ask for a specific study.
  • Do not repeat the speaker before you. Say you agree, then add the thing they missed.
  • Be accurate. A wrong number gets corrected from the dais and costs the whole room credibility.
Board meeting calendar(opens in a new tab)Public notices(opens in a new tab)

Volunteer

Most of the work is unglamorous and genuinely useful. Tell us what you can do and how much time you have.

  • Attend a meeting and take notes, so the record does not depend on one person being in the room.
  • Read a section of a long document and summarise what is in it.
  • Help check dates, votes and citations before anything is published here.
  • Tell a neighbour who has not been following it what is actually happening.

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